"Yaxchilan and Bonampak" a Palenque Travel Page by nepalgoods

I booked an organized tour to the ruins of Yaxchilan and Bonampak at a small travelagency in Palenque. We were 4 men and me. The first few hours we drove with a minibus on the road to the border to Guatemala. Then we took a small boat, which brought us through the jungle to Yaxchilan. Our guide told us, that there are still krokodiles in the river. We didn't see any.

Near the ruins of Yaxchilan is a small strip for airplanes to land. We built our tents aside of this grasstrip. In small huts a few people live to keep the landingstrip in order.

Through this dark and mysterious entrance we entered Yaxchilan. In the tunnel we disturbed bats and lizards. Take care to have a torch with you. Under the big trees of the jungle is not much light.

In contrast to the ruins of Chichen Itza or Palenque we found ourselves alone with the temples, rainforest and monkeys. No other tourists around! I got the wisp of an idea, how the discoveres of this jungle ruins might have felt. The jungle noices and smells were fantastic!

We wandered around. And thanks to our guide we saw also the ruins deep in the forest. There is a special kind of monkeys, which we saw: they are famous for their loud roar. They are big animals with dark brown fur and a long tail. Their roar can often be heard just before it begins to rain.

In the evening we sat in front of our tents, listened to somebody playing the guitar. Tucans gathered in a tree near the bank of the river and made a lot of noice. It grew dark very early, very fast, and then it was pitch black. Only the light of the fireflies was flashing around us.

The next morning we got up very early. The boat brought us back to the road. We drove a while. Then we went on a small path through the forest 2 hours to the ruins of Bonampak. A young Lacandon boy in his traditional white dress guided us over a slippery wet path. The forest was not really rainforest here but nevertheless impenetrable.

Bonampak was not that impressive as the jungle ruins of Yaxchilan. But it has old murals . The colours are vanishing. But you can still see the scenes of Mayan life.

The walk back to the road was very exhausting. It had rained and the path was full of muddy holes. Then the minibus broke down several times, which our guide commented with the words: "This is part of the adventure". When it happened the third time, I did not think it funny anymore.

But anyway this two-days-tour was a highlight of my trip to Mexico!